I still have the words from my mother ringing in my ears from childhood when I used to draw 'tattoos' on my arm "You'll get ink poisoning". Obviously I took no notice and obviously, as I'm past my half century I did not die from fountain pen and biro abuse. And I do have a small tattoo. Until studies prove otherwise I don't see why there's any reason for concern. There'll always be a few people who have a problem but it's no different to, for example, the current e- cig trend in the UK. People are happily smoking in a vapour that is inhaled and "claims" to be safer than standard cigarettes but it's not been medically tested. No one knew that cigarettes killed 50 years ago. Life is a risk unless you lock yourself in a padded room. .. then that's not life. I would like to see more licence and regulation, especially ink used. Also I believe that tattooists should be monitored and licensed under a medical umbrella and not just local bylaws for trade and hygiene. After all, dentists, doctors, physiotherapists, opticians etc have to be (in the uk) and whilst they are health focused the underlying trade of messing with a human's body is the commonality. No one wants to have a beautiful picture permanently engraved on for it to then cause life changing issues, but until proven otherwise I guess, like many of our personal decisions it's a chance we take. Thank you for the information and go get your tattoo ;)